Mark 1:21-28
Who is this person Jesus?
That is the question all the gospels attempt to answer for us. For all of them, Mathew, Mark, Luke, and John, it is the most important question that their readers will ever answer.
Mark takes us to the synagogue in Capernaum this morning where we find Jesus teaching scriptures. it is not so different from what is done today in every synagogue on the Sabbath, or in every Christian church on Sunday.
And we find that there, his listeners find something different, that this Jesus teaches with authority. They note that there is power in what he says. He spoke as if he intimately knew the Lord God Almighty. What he said stirred their minds and hearts. what he said made sense and it touched their hearts and lives.
He spoke like the prophet promised by God to Moses in Dt. 18:15-20, the OT lesson appointed for today.
There God says to Moses: I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their own people; I will put my words in the mouth of the prophet who will speak to them everything I command. Anyone who does not heed the words that the prophet shall speak in my name, I myself will hold accountable.
Jesus spoke like this prophet, one who had been given the very spirit of the living God.
And there in the midst of this worshipping synagogue congregation, a person disrupts the moment. Mark describes him as a man possessed by an unclean spirit.
The text gives us no specifics about what this looks like. it could’ve been someone with an addiction or a personality disorder of some sort. But however this disordered behavior manifested itself, it seems clear that it governs and disrupts his life in a harmful way. And the text attributes possession by an evil spirit.
It is interesting to note that, even in the midst of this God-worshipping group, evil can be present and operative, that in the midst of people worshipping God, the devil may still have hold of one’s soul.
Just going to synagogue, like just going to church makes you no more immune to evil, than just going to the hospital makes you immune to sickness. In both cases, you go there to find the person and treatment expert enough to heal you of your affliction.
Now, not only do his synagogue listeners recognize his authority, but that authority is demonstrated. and with a word Jesus frees this man of his evil oppression. He speaks to this evil spirit– with authority he commands it to depart, and it obeys.
It is clear that Jesus has authority. that he is more than a mere man.
In his encounters with various situations, be they natural, supernatural, be they involve the human being, natural forces, or spiritual forces, he demonstrates power and authority.
He heals the sick, restores sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf, and mobility to the crippled. He frees people from demonic possession and influence, he even raised the dead.
From everything that scripture tells us, it is clear that almost all of creation is submitted to Jesus’ authority.
The scriptures tell that the wind is submitted to his word; water is submitted to his word; storms are submitted to his word; sickness, germs, microbes, human cells, life itself, is submitted to his word.
Almost everything submits to the command of Jesus.
Almost everything.
The only part of creation that does not immediately submit to Jesus is the human being. It is only us, the human creature, who have the power to say no to Jesus. Just think about that a moment.
Consider. In the text it was the evil spirit who immediately recognized who this Jesus was, and obeyed. Yet, at the end, the congregation was still asking the question, what is this? Who is this Jesus?
Some might eventually proclaim him as Messiah and follow him as Lord. Yet others will probably respond by rejecting him, later trying to and ultimately succeeding in killing him.
God created us with free will, with the potential to choose. That gift makes us unique in all creation. We are free to choose to love, we are also free to choose to hate, we are free to choose to minister to others, or to focus on self. We are free to be obedient to the Lord or not.
The Lord of the Universe, God made flesh who commands obedience from all elements of our entire universe, does not command but merely invites us human creatures into relationship with him. Come follow me.
it is in accepting that invitation that we then acknowledge his authority and find his power released in our lives.
So let us ask ourselves: Who is this Jesus?
Mark wants us to know that this Jesus, this man who commands all things, who has authority over all things, came to invite us into a relationship with him where he and only he has the power and authority to rescue us from sin and its consequences: illness, compulsions, death.
And he lets us choose.
So who is this Jesus?
We can reject him completely. It flies in the face of all the evidence, but we can. He allows us to.
We can accept him as a mere man with wonderful teaching- keeping him as a companion submitted to our will and authority-Jesus on a leash.
Or, we can recognize his authority as Lord and submit ourselves to his authority like the rest of creation, because only there will we discover the true person, the true image that God had created us to be. That in Jesus is found freedom from all evil, and the way to true healing and wholeness and life.
So, who is this Jesus?
Sermon preached by the Rev. Richard C. Marsden
Church of the Redeemer
Sarasota Florida
4th Sunday of Epiphany
28 January 2018